Yanzhou, Changyi.

It was ten days later when Guo Jia returned.

In the official residence, Wang Jing personally hosted a banquet to welcome Guo Jia's return. When they met, he smiled and said, "Our great hero has finally returned safely. It seems that Yide has protected you very well."

Zhang Fei rubbed his nose proudly, raised his chin slightly, and boasted in high spirits: "I am not bragging, if I hadn't carefully escorted him all the way, with Fengxiao's personality of scolding everyone he met, I'm afraid it would be difficult for him to return to Changyi alive."

After saying that, he proudly shook his thick black eyebrows towards Guo Jia, as if to say, do you think I'm cool?
Seeing Zhang Fei showing off, Guo Jia couldn't help but tease him: "Yide, Yide, your name contains "fei" and your character contains "yu". Does that mean you are a bird?"

Zhang Fei got anxious when he heard this and quickly argued: "Fuck, you are a bird, your whole family are birds, I am a human!"

But how could Zhang Fei be a match for Guo Jia, who had learned the Confucian secret art of verbal sparring?

In a blink of an eye, he was so angry that he was speechless.

The more Guo Jia spoke, the more excited he became: "Yide, you are so black and your voice is as loud as a gong. From my point of view, Yide, you are not just a bird, but a crow in the painting of a hundred birds."

Zhang Fei was so angry that he wanted to hit someone on the spot!
Wang Jing hurried forward to stop him: "Yide, you too, knowing that Fengxiao is a tough guy, but you insist on provoking him. Aren't you just asking him to hurt you?"

Zhang Fei raised his fist as big as a clay pot and glared at Guo Jia angrily: "For the sake of Marquis Qi, I will not bother with you this time. See you at the wine table later!"

It was obvious that Zhang Fei wanted to challenge Guo Jia to a drinking contest and regain his respect at the table.

Wanting to compete in drinking, Guo Jia, who has a drinking bug in his stomach, would not be afraid of the stage. He immediately laughed and said, "Haha, that's exactly what I meant."

Although the two often bickered, they actually had a good private relationship, otherwise Wang Jing would not have asked Zhang Fei to accompany him for protection during this operation.

After three rounds of wine, five flavors of food.

Everyone was slightly tipsy, the atmosphere gradually became lively, and Wang Jing began to ask Guo Jia about the details of the trip to Heishan: "Fengxiao, have you persuaded Heishan to give up the poison?"

Seeing Wang Jing mention the mission, Guo Jia's face became solemn. He bowed and answered seriously: "My lord, I have fulfilled the mission and persuaded Heishan Yudu to send troops. The details are as follows..."

As Guo Jia told the story, not only Wang Jing, but even Xun You were amazed and praised him: "Han Wenjie has the talent of not recognizing gold and jade, and he is filial. One person is enough to defeat 100,000 elite soldiers."

Wang Jing also smiled and said: "It is easy to get thousands of soldiers, but it is difficult to get a general. I must be filial, which is better than thousands of soldiers and horses."

There is no doubt that Guo Jia was one of the top strategists during the Three Kingdoms period. His ability, wisdom and talent were on the same level as Jia Xu, Xun You, Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang.

In particular, Guo Jia is best at understanding people's hearts, and his talents and strategies are outstanding, worthy of being called a rare talent in the world.

The reason why Wang Jing appointed Guo Jia as the military advisor was that he valued his ability in this area and wanted him to plan and strategize for him and fill in the gaps.

…………

Southern Henan, Xu County.

After the failure of his attack on Yanzhou, Cao Cao withdrew his troops, returned to his hometown to lick his wounds, and accumulated strength to make a comeback.

Although he needed to keep a low profile at the moment, Cao Cao was, after all, a hero in troubled times, and his talents and strategies were no less capable than those of top strategists like Guo Jia and Jia Xu. Therefore, he did not sit and wait, but while waiting for the opportunity, he also sent out spies everywhere to collect information about Wang Jing.

Therefore, the changes in Jizhou soon reached his ears.

After learning that Han Fu had retaken Yecheng, Cao Cao immediately called Chen Gong to discuss: "Gongtai, I'm sure you've heard about the change of flags in Yecheng, right?"

Jizhou is the largest province in the world. Its ownership is not only related to the situation in Hebei, but also to the general situation in the world. Therefore, it has wide implications and has attracted the attention of many heroes.

As a famous scholar in Yanzhou, Chen Gong naturally had his own set of intelligence sources, so he had long learned the news that Yecheng had changed hands again and Jizhou would be plunged into civil war.

Now that Cao Cao asked about this, Chen Gong also showed a solemn expression: "Yingchuan Guo Fengxiao, the name of genius is really well deserved. One person can fight against 100,000 soldiers. With his help, Wang Jing will be even more powerful."

Even in this world where all power is concentrated in one person, the role that a top strategist can play is equally important, and to some extent can even reach the strategic level. The value of his existence is no less than that of a super warrior with unparalleled martial arts skills.

Liu Bei is the best example. When he came out of the mountains, he brought with him two peerless generals, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who were both capable of commanding troops and fighting.

But even so, Liu Bei, who lacked first-class advisers, was still in a miserable situation. Since the expedition against Zhang Jue, he had been chased around like a rabbit several times, with no place to live and in constant fear.

It was because no one helped him to give advice and analyze the situation, so even if he had powerful generals like Guan Yu and Zhang Fei by his side, they were of no use.

In the eyes of Cao Cao and Chen Gong, Wang Jing himself was already difficult to deal with. Now with the assistance of Guo Jia, who was familiar with the internal situation of Yanzhou and Yuzhou and had a deep understanding of the world situation, he would only be more difficult to deal with than before.

Cao Cao also saw this, and even heard Guo Jia's name, and for some reason he felt a little heartache, as if a treasure that he couldn't give up had been robbed: "I have heard of the name of Fengxiao when I passed by Yuzhou, but I missed the chance to meet him."

Seeing Cao Cao's low spirits, Chen Gong immediately advised him, "Meng De, why do you have to worry so much? There are many talented people in the world, not just Guo Fengxiao. As long as you keep your ambitions alive, you can accomplish something that will go down in history. Are you afraid that many talented people will come to help you accomplish your goals?"

Cao Cao was not the type who would give up easily, and with the encouragement of Chen Gong, he immediately regained his former heroic spirit. He looked around with heroic and dignified eyes, and exuded a strong personal aura.

The two of them looked around the map, left and right, but they were still full of doubts.

Cao Cao was an extremely brilliant strategic and tactical master, but Wang Jing's move to instigate a civil war in Jizhou was a little confusing to him, and he immediately raised a question in his mind: "Gongtai, what do you think Wang Yuanxu is trying to do? In the Jizhou civil war, even if Han Wenjie joins forces with Heishan Yu Du and Gongsun Bogui, he will never be able to defeat Yuanchu in the end. Why doesn't Wang Yuanxu directly send troops to support Han Wenjie?"

Chen Gong also frowned, unable to judge, and finally shook his head helplessly: "I can't guess what Wang Jing is thinking. Meng De, if it were you, what would you do?"

Cao Cao pondered for a moment, then pressed his palm on the map marked with the words Jizhou Provincial Governor's Office, and said decisively: "If it were me, I would have secretly dispatched elite troops to help Han Wenjie weaken Benchu's forces first, and try every means to eliminate this biggest enemy first. In such a large Jizhou, only Benchu ​​can be called a hero, and the rest are just mediocre fools. We can use the strategy of killing three warriors with two peaches to divide and disintegrate them and defeat them one by one."

In Cao Cao's view, a fierce tiger like Yuan Shao must be killed when he is weak, simply because the fierce tiger has the ability to unify Jizhou, and even the entire north, and then sweep the world.

But it would be difficult to advance Jizhou at the moment, so the wolves had to be left behind to divide Jizhou and engage in endless infighting.

"This is just a common sense strategy. Do you think Wang Yuanxu couldn't think of it?"

Chen Gong asked.

Cao Cao replied solemnly, "Impossible. Even if Wang Jing couldn't think of it, he has many talented advisers under him, and they would definitely remind him."

Chen Gong nodded when he heard this: "Yes, so this matter is unreasonable. Wang Yuanxu must have a deep meaning for this action."

Cao Cao sighed, his eyes seemed to be filled with thunder and lightning: "I have a bad feeling, no matter who wins the civil war in Jizhou, in the end, the biggest beneficiary will undoubtedly be Wang Yuanxu."

Jizhou, Yecheng.

Ten miles outside the city, the military tents were endless, like clouds in the sky.

Yuan Shao quickly gained the support of most of the aristocratic families in Jizhou by defeating Gongsun Zan in the Battle of Jieqiao. In particular, the local aristocratic families in Jizhou, whose members had served as officials for generations and had been on good terms with the Yuan family of Runan, spared no effort in supporting and helping Yuan Shao.

Therefore, although Yuan Shao lost Yecheng, he still easily assembled an army of 60,000, as if he had returned as a king, and launched a fierce counterattack.

After failing to persuade him to surrender, Yuan Shao returned to the central army camp angrily and said, "Han Wenjie, you old bastard, after I capture the city, I will kill your entire family, leaving no one alive!"

Yuan Shao held the famous sword Tai'a in his hand, his brows were filled with murderous intent, and his eyes were already turning into a sea of ​​fire with anger.

Previously, when he led his troops to attack Dong Zhuo, Han Fu had often hindered him and often withheld food and military pay. If he had not cared about his reputation, he would have taken action against Han Fu long ago.

However, Han Fu surrendered and then rebelled again, and this time Yuan Shao really wanted to kill him.

Shen Pei was bearing the blame for the loss of Yecheng, and at this moment he was gritting his teeth in hatred: "If it weren't for Han Wenjie, how could the good situation in Jizhou have been ruined to this extent? My lord, after this battle, we must massacre Jizhou with blood and eliminate all unstable factors. Otherwise, if it happens again, our army will be seriously damaged." Yuan Shao nodded, obviously agreeing with Shen Pei's suggestion.

If Han Fu had not betrayed him, it would have been easy for him to take over the entire Jizhou with his great victory in the Battle of Jie Bridge.

After that, if he mobilized all the power of Jizhou and went north to wipe out Gongsun Zan, it would be easy and effortless.

Unfortunately, this perfect plan was abruptly interrupted by Han Fu's betrayal.

Jizhou is the number one province in the world, with the most money, grain and population. In addition, it can also provide a lot of cultivation resources, especially the abundant earth unicorn jade and meteorite iron, which are important strategic resources that can improve strength and cultivation.

As the heart of the Central Plains that was intensively developed during the era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in ancient times, Jizhou has numerous spiritual fields and blessed lands. The aristocratic families and famous families that were born there are unrivaled in the world. It can be said that this is a place of outstanding people and countless talented people.

However, when there are too many people, it is difficult to unite. Therefore, even within the local aristocratic families in Jizhou, although the voices supporting Yuan Shao were the mainstream, there were also voices of opposition.

As for the local gentry entrenched in the counties and towns, they had no sense of closeness to Yuan Shao.

The noble families were all accustomed to changing their attitudes according to the situation, and it was easy for Yuan Shao to gain their support after his great victory. However, now that the Yecheng Incident had occurred, their attitude naturally became ambiguous again.

After all, it is human nature to curry favor with the powerful. It would be extremely difficult to ask the noble families and wealthy clans to help you in your time of need.

But if you ask them to add icing on the cake, they will be happy to do so.

This is the current situation in Jizhou. Before Yuan Shao recaptures Yecheng and establishes his position as the overlord of Hebei, there is probably no hope of gaining more support from the local aristocratic families and wealthy families in Jizhou.

But what made Shen Pei and Yuan Shao even more worried was that Wang Jing's purpose was unclear.

Yuan Shao was so upset that he could not sleep well with such a tough opponent. So he called all his advisers to discuss countermeasures: "Everyone, what do you think is Wang Yuanxu's intention of not sending troops directly?"

After seizing Jizhou with a piece of paper, he sent his strategist Guo Jia, who with just a few words persuaded Han Fu to gather an army of 100,000.

In today's Jizhou, there are the Black Mountain Army in the south and Gongsun Zan in the north. Although these people, including Han Fu, were all defeated by him, Yuan Shao still felt a lot of pressure when these old rivals joined hands to deal with him.

What made Yuan Shao even more anxious was that he could not guess Wang Jing's intentions. It was like a sharp sword held in the enemy's hand. Even if it was never unsheathed, the threat was still real.

Yuan Shao was afraid that when he and Han Fu were fighting fiercely, he would reveal his flaws and then suffer a thundering attack from Wang Jing.

Yuan Shao's subordinates, chief strategist Xun Zhan, and the four major strategists Tian Feng, Shen Pei, Feng Ji and Xu You, exchanged glances and all showed helpless expressions.

Because they had no idea what Wang Jing was thinking.

Among the crowd, only Xu You appeared anxious on the surface but was calm in his heart.

After all, his current identity is a traitor. He is in Yuan's camp but his heart is with the king. If he had just planned to get away with it before, after this incident, Xu You felt from the bottom of his heart that being a traitor was actually not bad. It felt much better than following Yuan Shao and going hungry for three days.

Jizhou is in constant turmoil right now, and everyone is in a state of panic, but Xu Ziyuan is the only one who is not panicked at all.

Whether Yuan Shao wins or loses, he is as steady as an old dog.

Right under Xu You's nose, a group of advisers under Yuan Shao planned and discussed for a long time, but still could not come to a reliable conclusion.

Finally, it was Tian Feng who spoke up: "My lord, no matter what Wang Yuanxu is plotting, our army's strategic goal must be to capture Yecheng."

Shen Pei was familiar with military strategy and reminded Yuan Shao, "My lord, although our army is strong and we are fighting on our home soil, we must guard against the threats from the Black Mountain Army and Gongsun Zan."

"Yes, my lord. Once we are attacked from both sides, the situation will be difficult to handle."

The situation was so critical that the team of advisers, who had been quarreling all the time, now stopped making noise. After all, if Yuan Shao was finished, their good days would be over.

Even if they want to fight for interests, they have to take down Yecheng first. Otherwise, once Yuan Shao’s army is defeated, the monkeys will scatter when the tree falls, and there will be no point for them to fight.

Yuan Shao looked serious and asked again: "Do you have any good ideas?"

This time, Xun Zhan stood up and said passionately: "My lord, I am willing to go to Youzhou to explain the pros and cons and persuade Liu Bo'an to join forces with our army."

Yuan Shao was delighted: "Great! If we can get Liu Bo'an's help, we can restrain Gongsun Zan. At least he will have no time to attack Jizhou."

Xun Zhan had sent out many spies to secretly investigate the situation in Youzhou, so he knew a lot of information about the discord between Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan. He planned to use this to ease the pressure from Liaoxi for Yuan Shao.

In the vast Youzhou, Gongsun Zan advocated war while Liu Yu advocated peace. It could be seen from their attitudes towards the Wuhuan people that the contradictions between the two were irreconcilable and it was only a matter of time before a conflict broke out.

However, Xun Zhan needed to detonate this conflict in advance and use Liu Yu to contain Gongsun Zan.

After finding a solution to Gongsun Zan's problem, Yuan Shao asked again, "How should we deal with the Black Mountain Army?"

The Black Mountain Army’s combat effectiveness is not very good, but their numbers are really large. If they continue to harass the flanks, they will still put considerable pressure on Yuan Shao’s army.

Therefore, if the threat of the Black Mountain Army was not resolved, Yuan Shao would not be able to gather all his forces to attack Yecheng and quickly capture Han Fu.

Yuan Shao himself was very familiar with Yecheng, so he knew how difficult it would be to capture this fortified city from Han Fu's 20,000 defenders.

Even if they had three times more troops and were assisted by powerful generals and wise counselors, the casualties would still be heavy.

Feng Ji, who was the first to follow Yuan Shao and helped him seize Jizhou, once again stepped forward in this critical moment and accepted the order: "My lord, I am willing to go to Bingzhou and persuade Zhang Zhishu, the governor of Shangdang, to send troops to force Yu Du and others to retreat."

"Very good!"

Yuan Shao looked at Feng Ji happily, feeling even more emotional in his heart. Although he had more and more advisers under his command after coming to Jizhou.

But no matter in terms of loyalty or ability, Feng Ji is still the one who deserves my trust the most.

Yuan Shao immediately agreed to Feng Ji's suggestion: "Yuan Tu, the mission to Bingzhou depends entirely on your planning."

Zhang Yang of Shangdang, a native of Yunzhong, Bingzhou, was also one of the heroes in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

This man ruled the southern part of Bingzhou. When faced with the orders of Zhang Liao and Wang Jing, he would only obey orders and not obey proclamations, and formed his own faction in Bingzhou.

When the eunuchs were in power, Zhang Yang was ordered by General He Jin to return to Bingzhou to recruit soldiers. Since then, he has stayed in Shangdang to attack bandits and has become an old rival of the Black Mountain Army.

Therefore, when Yuan Shao heard Feng Ji mention Zhang Yang, he immediately agreed to this plan.

Changyi, the official residence of the governor.

Wang Jing was playing chess with Xun You. On the chessboard, black and white pieces were fighting against each other.

Under certain rules, in a pure contest of intelligence, Xun You was no match for Wang Jing, and soon raised his hands in surrender: "I have lost again. In terms of chess skills, I wonder if there is anyone in the world who can be my lord's opponent."

"It's just a chess game, for entertainment in your spare time, why should Gongda care about it?"

Wang Jing smiled. Relying on his spiritual cultivation of Baoshen, Wang Jing's computing power was comparable to that of a supercomputer. In a game like chess, which simply tests mental calculations, he was indeed invincible. Even the chess master would have to kneel down and call him daddy.

It is precisely because of this that Xun You, who often played chess with Wang Jing, expressed such emotion.

When the two were packing up the chessboard, a secret guard suddenly came in and handed a secret letter to Wang Jing: "My lord, a secret letter from Jizhou." (End of this chapter)